More than 60 suits of armour from the Landeszeughaus and the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer in Vienna are exhibited alongside 12 robes created by Italian fashion designer Roberto Capucci, whose work is repeatedly inspired by armour. His robes, which are usually pleated, reflect again and again the precision of the lines of suits of armour; they also allude to the high art of the armourers of that time, who transformed iron into drapes of steel.
The Tinguely Museum in Basel is the ideal place for such an exhibition: Tinguely and his companions Luginbühl and Spoerri (who, like the armourers in their time, focussed on working with iron) provide the right framework with their group of works – with Tinguely as a declared anarchist but also a militarist in disguise, the area between war and the absurdity of war is covered. Oskar Schlemmer's works fit perfectly into the presentation.
With their geometric shapes they abstract from tangible clothing and, like armour and robes, constitute a second skin. This exhibition allows for a re-evaluation of the armourer's craft and, with the combination of Roberto Capucci's robes, the militaria of Tinguely, Luginbühl and Spoerri and Oskar Schlemmer's figurines, raises questions of an art-historic as well as of an existential nature – between the horror of war and the beauty of the catwalk.
